Scandals Have Been Boring For Too Long!

Scandals Have Been Boring For Too Long!

(The #PanamaPapers: Of Tax Evasion / Avoidance)

Inspiration for the title of this post is from an ad-slogan "Ships have been boring for too long" - How the great Cunard's QEII ocean liner was promoted at its launch in 1967.

Fund Portfolio Management - FPM looked at the latest whistle-blowing leaks of confidential / secret / private etc information. Particularly the significance of the #PanamaPapers dissemination. The revelations of the expose have similitude and character to a duplicitous grand theft from public-purse spanning over 40 years. Mere media cantation of whistle-blowing, leaks and scandal is wastefully "jobsworth" paper-selling newscycle. The seriousness of high profile Snowden, Assange, Clinton, Libor-fixing etc etc have sadly not been addressed and followed up to serve as tier of public-interest protection. Agencies do exist, but they are often Government-funded and therefore stymied by their regulatory enforcement efforts by unincentivised and overworked civil servants: for case in point, at least in the U.K., Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs - HMRC, the tax collecting authourity. Hence why scandals have created ennui and apathy in the accustomed-to-corruption public. FPM believe this "scandals" should be scintillating for the agencies concerned for years to come - not at all boring!

 

What is critically important TODAY is that we live in epoch-changing times with confluence of technological and geopolitical factors affecting the whole world – from globalisation. The joined-up thinking indicates that the #PanmaPapers serve to remind and ultimately remedy the biggest social problems of the past and TODAY, wealth-inequality - seriously. Climate change is indeed another one that threatens mankind, but while we exist the quality of existence is indeed measured by wealth. Especially so in a world imposed by money-lenders and money-changers in the "money game". People! we live in a plutocracy not a democracy - tax havens are an inevitable symptom of former type of organisation of society. Just as once Christianity was imposed on so-called pagan worlds, and theology used to exercise control power and influence (also sex!) over the subjects of religion.  The global oligarchy of wealthy establisment people and organisations in various countries have been exposed on global mass, for their shady practices equal to theft in complicity with law-makers and politicians. A grand theft from the majority of the public who have in essense been distracted and defrauded of tax revenues. Robbed blind! As the saying goes. And as further insult from these ruthless thieving classes of establishmentarians - upper-class elites devoid of human empathy that have always existed - the 99% of population now faces public spending austerity and public-assets privatised via corrupt crony capitalism. And isn't that indicative or cause of the biggest problem of global societies TODAY, great wealth inequality?

Mushrooming billionaires and millionaires inevitability means greater amount of common people poorer in debt servitude – zero-sum “game of money” (one wins another loses; then print and/or create more money via cycle of  asset-bubbles and lending).

So what makes the #PanamaPaper a catalyst for revolution by the proletariat and the middle classes? And who are these money-lenders and money-changers and accomplices  who make vast fortunes, exploiting the public? The various Biblical-proportions leaks revealing a shadow world of corporate and finacial malfeasance is treated by "Murdoch's MainStreamMedia Muppets" (a nickname from FPM's #NoSmokeWithoutFire: Of Reputation for bad journalists), as a "scandal". These sharing of secrets by whistle blowers in the interest of humanity could and should mean much more if big media were more responsible independent and didactic. Simply put, the public's induction and their deductions have been too long manipulated. FPM shed more joined-up-thinking perspectives on #PanamaPapers:

1) Examined in particular instances i.e. scrutiny of the deluge of data from JUST ONE organisation helping to avoid and or evade national taxes for the wealthy via offshore tax structures, we see the hypocrisy and blatant disregard for the public interest. Tax avoidance is meant to be illegal and evasion is permissable within rules. A public, who most of these wealthy classes,  entrepreneurs to politicians, claim to serve in their economic life and careers are arguably self-servingly exploiting and preying on the wider, majority and fellow humans. "Animals" is too insulting a word for wildlife, to describe this ruthless morality and behaviour: "beasts" seem apt! Not only of public figures like David Cameron, Prime Minister in the U.K. accumalating wealth from trusted public positions, but also of his ancestors and descendents indirectly; as the British PM shamelessly distance himself from his own deceased father through embroilment over Blaimore Holdings Inc.. This is exactly the case in point why FPM use the term "CORRUPT CRONY CAPITALISM". Most of these wealthy people rely on  their PUBLIC REPUTATION for their livelihood. Therefore it is not a stretch of the imagination to believe, for example, that David Cameron's has guilt by association, even though his father used tax shelter schemes. A case in point is the resignation of Iceland Prime Minister after the #PanamaPapers leaks – more later. So the high-impact value of these Mossack Fonseca company's operational files is not just about money laundering and discrete transactions in asset management – which to the many unsuspecting public would seem unusually like business as normal!

Instead the greater mass of the public, as in any peoples' revolutions of the past, have and have had an opportunity to hold accountable these wealthy individuals. Specifically to interrogate the difference in the public communication policy and their deeds towards accumulating wealth. David  This investigation of individual and corporate entities is KEY and CRITICAL as a catalyst for people's revolution to create or simply expect a fairer society, or at least re-dress the balance (until another and next era produces inequality!)

Q. Why is FPM certain that a comprehensive investigation of these #PanamaPapers and their information is key to opening Pandora box of the deceitful backward two-faced individuals and corporations? A. As proof, World governments have come out one-by-one to publically announce that they are starting investigations into these files and the tax affairs of en-masse wealthy (not just isolated ephemeral cases like Bernie Eccleston or Lionel Messi!). Tackling tax-avoidance is an appeasement rhetoric or platitudes often expected from lip-service sound-bite politicians. Keep these politicians and governments to account for their pledge in the afternmath of the terroist bomb of secret information.

2) These confidential information leaks and those to follow, as whistle-blowers get legal status and protection, are NOT merely a part of the ever-changing "NEWS CYCLE"; perhaps leak is itself agenda-driven, this time to appease  the disgruntled left-wing public and activists, or anything of the sort. FPM suggests "The Force Awakens: In Investigative Journalism!" The nature of Panama Papers is probably designed to have revolutionary impact: ICIJ · The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have been handed this confidential information about the shadowy world. And they seemingly are responsible as a worldwide journalist community of named individuals (Project Managers: Marina Walker Guevara and Gerard Ryle), to adduce and disseminate findings from the leaked confidential secrets into the mainstream consciousness. At least until tax laws are effectively changed by the #politicianRcriminal class towards wealth-equality (among the other more prominent rhetoric about "gender equality", "racial equality"etc). Treatment of this #PanamaPapers will be tracked by FPM to ensure the sorting of  "the wheat from the chaff"; between mainstream media and new technological advent of private independent blog media.

To repeat, the global game-changing factors are: 1) Technological, 2) Geopolitical and 3) Wealth Inequality. ("Climate Change" is also key factor and FPM classify it under technological - as man-made phenomenon)

 

3) FPM just mentioned a technological factor in the above point, and more to follow. Now we demonstrate a geopolitical factor such as events in Iceland. FPM concludes that the purest form of democracy has been demonstrated by the most isolated yet fiercely independent society in the modern era. Iceland's premier has been impeached after the leaked Panama files, following public protests. Now that's true democracy from a coherent   nation of people! Remember that Iceland, along with a few other countries took a different path to the financial crisis that caused the "Great Recession".  Instead of fearing a national banking crisis, the Government's policy was to let their insolvent banks fail, rather than use tax-payer funds to plug the black-hole (i.e. difference in the bottom-line balance sheet of the banks between their liabilities and assets). It seems the people could not forgive the perfidy of the Icelanic PrimeMinister: on the one hand seeming to be tough on banks, and on the other using offshore tax haven to hide away profits (of his wife).

4) The final equation of the game-changing epoch or revolution which FPM explore is the state of the people. Do the people have enough "bread and circus" to pre-occupy them while rulers freely rule? Or, as reformers of in 19th century England  used to discuss: "the condition of England question". How do we reconcile the two distinct groups of economic interests, the haves and and the have-nots (rich and poor, bosses and workers, etc), which now and then starkly arises, and with hostility to one another. This embryonic revolution  was witnessed in the Arab Spring protests in the Middle East recently. As monarchies once knew how to gauge the sentiment of its people before carrying out its sovereign will, so as to not foment uprising and revolution by the people; similarly governments also were meant to be in touch with popular sentiment before enacting and enforcing regulation. However, there is a mechanism of feathering-one's nest where politicians rule the people via corrupt crony capitalists motivations, instead of ruling for them, the people, as elected representatives. If politicians are indeed out of touch with the depravity and outrage of its citizens, an incendiary background or circumstances exist for igniting a peoples revolt against the order of society.

5) Collaborative investigative journalism versus mainstream propaganda media is viewed by FPM as technological innovation of news organisations. One or two investigative journalists on large press / TV networks with secret leaked information may be putting his/ her job or career at stake in exposing powerful wealthy persons and organisations. In extreme cases, the exposing journalist/s may have their life threatened, and mostly sidelined or excommunicated from the press fraternity. Wasn't Glen Greenwald denounced for publishing Snowden leaks? With the scale of the #PanamaPapers information (2.3 terrabytes of digitised data) and the manner of its scrutiny and publication is indicative of an highly organised platform of the ICIJ consortium (109 news organisations and 370 named 'journos' worldwide have shared the high-level mass data). This augurs an effective dissemination of potent information to have societal impact; as much impact as handful of oligarchy colluding editors and their press-baron billionnaires owners have had to now(in the U.K. currently Mr Murdoch, Lord Rothermere, Barclay brothers and Mr Lebedev). Hopefully, the Force Has Awoken indeed: FPM has consistently criticised #msm while espousing alternative independant media in its financial services analysis.

6) The greater impact of the #panamapapers is only beginning to unfold i.e. now only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. FPM have long been speculating that geopolitical risks WILL cause the next economic and capital markets crash. Our capital markets strategic research points to a tsunami in currency trading markets, related to the $Euro foreign exchange crashing or even its existential demise. The Eurpean Union - E.U. itself not long ago faced an existential crisis with national deficit problems in member "PIIGS" countries. FPM have from the beginning espoused the doomed project that is the Eurpean Union in its blogs and commissioned / subscription research. The ultimate events and the catalyst for E.U. breakup are on stage following #panamapapers leaks. (Citation is Stratforumn)... to see complete doomsday-mongering on coign moment for capitalism's disaster, including end of carried-interest tax treatment), please contact FPM.

7) FPM's indicated in point 2 above about #panamapapers, that "perhaps leak is itself agenda-driven". Our veracity or disbelief in the potential impact and deductions that society draws from the modus operandi of a secretive global financial system, of essentially preserving and compounding wealth, is the involvement of George Soros funded Open Society Foundation. They report themselves as  'general support funding' the consortium of independent journalists charged with using the leaked data - the ICIJ. George Soros's "NoSmokeWithoutFire" reputation is not necessarily the public perception of him, through propaganda pandering mainstream media. Equally therefore, FPM prinicipals are somewhat dubious about the aims and source of this Panama leak. For instance, the bias in data revelations seemingly does more damage to developing countries' public figures than ones in developed countries. And lesser historical and extended family seem targets than uber-wealthy powerful figures of the USA etc. Further, as George Soros is a billionnaire money-lender, and some suggest staunch supporter of Zionist aspirations and one-world-government, FPM suspects a furtive  stealth agenda to usefulness of leaked transparency. Notice that Mr Soros is from the opaque world of hedge-funds and private-equity financial investments; he famously bet against the British currency the sterling being pegged too high against the Deutschemark in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism - a forerunner currency union to the E.U. and the Euro itself. Then in September 16, 1992 pound exchange-rate crashed and was eventually withdrawn from the ERM; and unsurprisingly is STILL out of the Euro-Zone member countries. Mr Soros made a reported billion-dollar-region fortune with his clients' money, for them and no doubt, significant proportion for himself through management and carried-interest fees, when the pound crashed on what is dubbed "Black Wednesday". The British taxpayers' public-purse lost that much money to Mr Soros and other cabal hedge funds in foreign exchange financial trading.

8) Threading points 6 and 7, it is remarkable that Mossack Fonsec, the Panama-based law firm, as the source of the leaks covering 21 tax-shelter jurisdictions around the world does not include Cayman Island.... To Be Continued.

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Sexy and saucy embodiment to a scandal is the reputation of the entity (corporate and corporeal perhaps) attributed as adduced from "No Smoke Without Fire" research!... Samples from FPM enterprise:

Www.FundPortfolioManagement.com
FPM's #NoSmokeWithoutFire: Of Reputation
© NSWF:Reputation
Did Blackstone Group Sponsor Insider Trading?

A Tale of Two Tweets

Tweet

I spotted these two Tweets from my Twitter followings, a week prior to Christmas week, coincidentally back-to-back and regarding important economic issues. See Twitter screen-dump below.

One of the Tweets is from the offices of one of my dear friends and the other is from the offices of my dubious ruler. I know which of them I wholeheartedly trust and admittedly fear more! Therefore, the reputation of the messenger is as significant and relevant as the message itself.

I think the discerning public should be aware of the importance of those economic-related Tweets. Here we’re not so much interested in the debate or pro’s /cons of ‘TTIP’ or for that matter about the ‘debt fraud’. Instead FPM are reading between the lines as to whom and which message and messenger is credible as a source of information. We know that Governments use propaganda to propagate its policy goals, as do companies but here we aim to interpret or frame the issues faithfully.

Through Dame Vivienne Westwood’s communications office and her campaigning / blog vehicle “Climate Revolution”, she is humanely warning us of fallacies and manipulation in the UK Government’s economic policies. This is done in this instance by the office disseminating a critical piece of journalism by The Guardian newspaper writer Seumas Milne. Now compare Mr Cameron, the UK Prime minister’s Tweet, which is also disseminating seemingly important information. Whereas The Guardian writer and Climate Revolution have a degree of independence of views by association; the ‘dummy guide’ to promoting TTIP produced by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is devoid of independence, as it is self-regulated by its industrial members and quasi-Government funded. 

FPM aims to strip out the financial / economic propaganda news to it bare rudimentary agenda. This we do by referencing highly informed undiluted new alternative media sources, such as NakedCapitalism.Com and ZeroHedge.com, and numerous others together with independent bloggers. They all contribute their added value knowledge in the phenomenon through the currently free-to-all World-Wide-Web aka. “www.”. By implication we have lost faith in the truth and integrity of mainstream media - MSM.

A Sham Too Far: Of TTIP

Briefly, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is yet another administrative bureaucratic sham that the USA is spearheading towards globalisation and imposing its single superpower status (also known as US hegemony) on the world. You can read more on this global agenda via Naom Chomsky’s “Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance” in this article here.

TTIP is clearly a sham as economic fundamentals (e.g. burgeoning national debts; China slowing as driver of global growth; austerity revolts etc) and geopolitical matters (e.g. Russia and Ukraine; E.U. breakup; Middle East wars, Immigration tensions) dictates urgency to shore-up a future of “business as usual” with rigorous new business rules in place. Otherwise nations are expected to implode under their debt and austerity burdens. Not least, the so called “PIGS” countries. 

FPM is currently actively monitoring an incineration event / catalyst in the “cradle of Western civilisation”. Greece is continuing amid turbulence, not only the ever erupting populous risings over the effective takeover of their country by the “Troika” and imposition of intolerable impossible economic terms of the ECB, IMF and EU bailout. Lest it be forgotten that the origins of Greece’s problems were caused by Goldman Sachs helping to hide its debts to gain membership into the EU club. Despite the EU bureaucrat rhetoric, yes, like a country club, a membership can be withdrawn or terminated by either party. Come on Greece (or Barcelona) set in motion de-globalisation and independence, what the “Bravefart Scots” chickened-out from recently in September!

What is wrong with a united world and a federated planet? As depicted in sci-fi “Star Trek” series for instance, one may plausibly ask? Greater union of nations under the current brand of neoliberal democracies ultimately and primarily will continue to serve the interests of the wealthy classes, who by definition own most of the resources and assets of our capitalistic society. At the exploited expense of the majority of the population, and not to mention the disharmony inflicted on our planet’s ecology through climate change. As if to provide empirical evidence of this FPM assertion we have only to observe the wealth inequalities over last 35 years and, through history. Great social wealth inequalities through lack of justice, corruption, dictatorships or other imbalances have tended to result in revolution (viz. litany of past revolts by the populous). The most profound and recent thorough research exposing this stark disparity in the wealth of the nation and its population is by Thomas Piketty (pronounced Tome-AH PEEK-a-tee) entitled “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”

The stark wealth inequality findings are so relevant that an excerpt of the book’s thrust is presented below, Read full book review here from The Guardian newspaper:

“…Piketty’s main argument is this: that invested capital – in the stock market, in real estate – will grow faster than income. The implications of that are deep: to have invested capital, you must have money already. If you rely on income, as most people do, you will likely never catch up to the wealth of people who are already rich. The 1% and the 99% enshrined by Occupy are not an anomaly of our time, Piketty’s research suggests. It’s a structural feature of capitalism. Piketty’s work – which has been in progress for over a decade – is a natural pairing with the Occupy movement, which also questions the premises of capitalism…”

Source: The Guardian, Heidi Moore, 21^st September 2014

Mr Piketty’s 700-page tome is not only the best selling book of 2014 and FPM’s Winter Seasonal gift recommendation, but academically supports the 3-prong creative-destruction financial enterprise mission of FPM and imbalances in financial services and in capitalism at large.

Back to the thrust of our argument, other than the reputation of the messenger: that TTIP and Globalisation consolidates the power and wealth among the existing plutocrats. The allure to low and middle income earners, the largest members of a nation, of joining that wealthy elite upholds the edifice of plutocracy intact, much in the same way as guard-dogs or heavy security protects the houses of the high net worth individuals. Or put another way, much like how better treated house servants / slaves were more loyal to their masters than their “field servants” (those who tilled the lands) during slavery and agriculture of the past.  FPM’s Evidence here articulated in Q&A format:

Q. If United Kingdom is the sixth wealthiest country in the world why are there food banks for poverty stricken millions and austerity for many millions more?

A. The answer is simple. Wealth of the nation is disproportionately held by few billionaires and some millionaires due to politically inefficient income and tax distribution.

This wealth is also in the form of capital assets i.e. mere accounting notation based on notional value of assets such as property prices.  The proletariat or the majority of the population without income-earning assets are then left to subsist on a hand-to-mouth existence , which is bank debt and salary/wage income.

That is, the proletariat are asked to live on the wealth of the nation that has not been siphoned-off or otherwise accumulated by the top-heavy asset owners. In his epochal book “1984”, George Orwell described “most people” as those who are not Party Members, as “Proles” i.e. outside of the system.

"Prole" is short for Proletariat. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the proles are the section of society that are unaware of the dystopian elements of their world. They are distracted by simple, unimportant matters such as the lottery, and are more concerned with emotions as opposed to politics. They make up 85% of the population within Nineteen Eighty-Four, and could potentially overthrow Big Brother. Winston believes this will happen one day, when they wake up to their situation and take action.

Under the false premise of benefiting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), TTIP will through thin-end-of-the-wedge result in handing over greater power to the ruling classes of wealth owners. They in essence naturally want to preserve their status quo by stipulating future rules for businesses and corporations which make them more powerful than Governments and its people, in instances. To read about this piece of the TTIP on “Investor State Dispute Settlement - ISDS” see here. An important part of TTIP negotiations, where so far both Germany and France have objected to any legal challenge to sovereign legislation.  Thrust of TTIP would exacerbate the wealth inequalities we have now, and at the same time bind people and nations into unbreakable servitude to corporations through their dependence on incomes and debt obligations. As if we are not already.

At FPM we have alluded to the end-cycle of free market capitalism, after a 35-year period of industrial deregulation, started during the rule of Thatcher-Reagan Era of the 1980’s. Please notice the UK-USA axis of the cordial in the then “transatlantic partnership” with pretext about “Special Relationship”; which initiated deregulated financial / capital markets in 1987, euphemistically termed “Big Bang” and other so-called industrial liberalisation policies in the foresworn lie of consumer benefits, including opening the skies and allowing airline carriers to compete for routes, and so on and so on. This parochial or blinkered business decision alone has a) increased immigration tensions and in relation b) ramped up carbon-emission footprints of air passengers. FPM in May this year, responsibly highlighted such global corporative excesses and irresponsibility leading to inequalities of “unbound capitalism” into the new millennium. The regulatory or legislative framework permitting such legal follies are enshrined through stealth laws, such as are passed without proper public consultation, harangued by public relations communication and other “jobsworth” proponents.

The secretive TTIP negotiations would aim to bring into the capitalists’ debauched party, formerly socialist and communist countries of the enlarged and growing European Union - EU. FPM feel that globalisation of this proportions would effectively make countries increasingly interconnected in their risks and somewhat homogeneous in national culture and identity. Similar to the way we have McDonalds restaurants all over the globe currently; while lacking individuality in high streets and in towns.  

The recent financial crisis is the best and vivid example of these impending global connectivity risks. Which TTIP legislatively will bind us irrecoverably into Mutually Assured Destruction  - M.A.D system. The housing and bubble financial crisis started in the USA and spread globally via the international financial markets. A global economic crisis which we are still feeling the fall-out from, with ever more national debts accumulated in some countries to prop-up a notionally blown-up capital-value bubble. Capitalism is still on its knees.  This wrought financial crash and its orchestrated bail-out represents the greatest transfer of wealth from the public sector to the private sector, i.e. taxpayers wealth to asset-wealthy individuals and their multinational businesses. A.I.G, General Motors and other large corporations should have foundered in the same way Lehman Brothers blew-up; as unbalanced assets and liabilities of their accounts book made them insolvent from their financial divisions’ folly in capital market shenanigans with “toxic assets”. 

Yet “private profit and social loss” was allowed to systemically prevail as justified with tags such as “Too Big Too Fail - TBTF”. Such malfeasance would then be the permanent hallmark of globalisation with USA at the helm. There is another way! The evidence for this is the long-process of economic stagnation until wealth is redistributed to the satisfaction of greater majority of the population. Is the mass of unemployment made of people who cannot find work, or those who have become disillusioned with paying taxes? Government control of wealth distribution on behalf its people, who were expecting a fair and just socio-economic political system, have monumentally been let down. The humdrum politicians’ masters have always been the corrupting powerful lobbyist through mass media manipulation and funded by… yep you guessed it, the plutocrats. This is an inflextion 

Endorsing TTIP would be like the angel “Gabriel” showing the future of things to come in a world without James Stewart, as portrayed in the movie “What a Wonderful Life”. That future was bleak and it would be so for the citizens of America and Europe if bi-lateral TTIP agreements are made by such giant blocks of countries in the interest of business. We are heading by degrees to “1984” with Big Brother being American hegemony.

However, we should not hope to leave such happy-endings or dystopias only in the realm of films and books but actively intervene in the external reality and oppose the resolve of “jobsworth” bureaucrats and vested orchestrators in the TTIP negotiations. Please signal YOUR opposition to TTIP and over-reach of USA hegemony to your MP by spending a few minutes on the internet. I simply put “Avaaz TTIP Protest” into an internet search engine and “the world's largest and most effective online campaigning community for change” Avaaz.com allowed me to sign a petition here, in resistance to TTIP. Simple, active and effective and meaningful! Another action would be to notice FPM’s financial savvy experience to oppose the UK’s prime minister’s view by Tweet. On the other hand FPM have not countered our friend’s Tweet about the “debt fraud”. Needless to say most of the financial community is aware, or at least should be aware of the sham of debt and austerity, and NEVER believe a politician’s official mythology.